Despite hearings, questions dog SUNY housing plan

Saturday

Dec 8, 2012 at 2:00 AM

NEW PALTZ — A plan to build a massive housing complex at SUNY New Paltz is wending its way through town Planning Board review. Despite two public hearings and a third on the horizon, questions about the project abound.

BY JEREMIAH HORRIGAN

NEW PALTZ — A plan to build a massive housing complex at SUNY New Paltz is wending its way through town Planning Board review. Despite two public hearings and a third on the horizon, questions about the project abound.

If built, the project, Park Point, would have wide financial and social implications for both the college and the community.

The proposed 732-bed student and faculty housing complex would be set on 42 acres of now vacant land in the town near the campus on Route 32.

The project is being built by Wilmorite Inc., a private developer, in conjunction the nonprofit SUNY New Paltz Foundation. The housing, which has a projected development cost of between $45 and $50 million, has been under review since 2010; its developers hope to get final approvals by early next year, a hope some observers have met with skepticism.

The college is eager to see the complex built, citing a pressing need for what it calls "safe apartment-style housing," especially for transfer students. College President Donald Christian said in a recent statement that Park Point "is the right project at the right time for SUNY New Paltz."

The college estimates construction could mean 215 jobs, and almost $4 million in local sales.

While the need for student housing is undeniable, a project this big will not escape scrutiny on such issues as its environmental, infrastructural and financial impact on the town and village.

Associate sociology professor Brian Obach has been active in environmental efforts at both the college and the community levels.

He says he's "conditionally" in favor of the project because near-campus housing and promised green technologies within the project could reduce its carbon foot print.

What gives Obach pause is the level of green technologies the developer will use; SUNY requires builders to meet higher green building standards than standards Wilmorite adheres to, he said.

Questions about how SUNY and Wilmorite will collaborate and how that will affect the community have provoked questions, as well as anger, among some community members and officials.

Village Mayor Jason West said that extracting information about possible community impacts has been like "pulling teeth" from Wilmorite. "It's not that impacts of themselves are wrong or bad. It's that we need to know what gains are worth the price of those impacts, and nobody's saying what those are."

A third public hearing before the Planning Board is set for at 7 p.m. Monday at Town Hall .